Making the Argument for Sanskrit (was: Re: How to salvage Sanskrit in Berlin)

[Dominik Wujastyk]

Further to David's point below, it could be useful to compile a list of 
particularly famous people who had Sanskri, sometimes unexpectedly, in 
their backgrounds.  Using such a list would be purely a rhetorical device, 
but could still be effective in winning some hearts and minds.

examples off the top of my head:

Hermann Grassmann (1809-1877), famous mathematician.
Leonard Bloomfield (1887--1949), structural linguist, behaviourist,
   scholar of American Indian languages, and founder of the Linguistic
   Society of America.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857--1913), linguist, founder of structuralism.

Dominik


On Thu, 11 Jan 2007, David Rustin Mellins wrote:

> I certainly agree with Andrea and others that the most effective
> immediate response to the current crisis is to send letters in
> support of the Sanskrit program in Berlin. As a component of a more
> comprehensive strategy to redress cutbacks in Sanskrit programs
> throughout the world, would it be feasible or helfpul to conduct
> studies to investigate whether studying Sanskrit expedites
> linguistic capacity more generally? Statistical evidence might well
> strengthen the argument for Sanskrit studies.
>
>                          David Mellins